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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27730399">i love you, but accidental</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsRen/pseuds/MrsRen'>MrsRen</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Accidental Confession, F/M, Hogwarts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:02:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,113</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27730399</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsRen/pseuds/MrsRen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
      <p>It's the firewhisky that makes him say it, or the blistering cold outside that's turns his hands numb. Maybe it's the way her hair tumbles over her shoulders, or the way Granger's tumbler is half-way to her mouth while her eyes widen impossibly.</p>
    </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>395</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Best of DMHG</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>i love you, but accidental</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>It's the firewhisky that makes him say it, or the blistering cold outside that's turns his hands numb. Maybe it's the way her hair tumbles over her shoulders, or the way Granger's tumbler is half-way to her mouth while her eyes widen impossibly.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <strong>Hello! This was written for a celebration for reaching 2k followers on Tumblr! This is just some flash fiction, but I'll probably be uploading another piece soon for the same event. </strong>
</p><p>
  <strong>I am also working on a WIP, but it probably won't be uploaded until it's complete. It's a Draco/Hermione/Pansy Sex Club AU. Triad. </strong>
</p>
<hr/><p>It's the firewhisky that made him say it, or the blistering cold outside that's turns his hands numb. Maybe it's the way her hair tumbles over her shoulders, or the way Granger's tumbler is half-way to her mouth while her eyes widen impossibly.</p><p>Or maybe it's the fact that it's been a long time coming—months and months in the making now—and he's never been good at holding onto things that are good. And if she's anything, it's good. He can't relate to it, not now, and certainly not in the past. If he had time to think about it, which he doesn't, Draco would consider the fact that it's been nothing short of a miracle getting her. Being placed as Head Boy had been a punishment, but a month in, it stopped being that.</p><p>Because she was just as lonely as he was, and now—fuck.</p><p>"What did you say?"</p><p>The pub is still loud around them—shouts and cries and laughs exploding as the year starts over—but here it's silent. There's barely any space between them because this table is miniscule to start with, but being near her has always been suffocating. Draco thinks of drafting the prefects' schedule with her, Granger's arm bumping into his, or rounds where she's freezing but too stubborn to admit it so he drapes his cloak over her. Of how it always smells like her when he gets it back.</p><p>Draco actively tries to never let his thoughts run wild—like what it would be like to kiss her, to turn her into the curve of his arm, or to be the reason she throws her head back in a laugh—but the hard fact of it is that she's taken over all of his thoughts for herself. With absolutely no regard for his sanity, and now he's gone and lost his fucking mind.</p><p>She's still staring at him when he pushes away, and his chair screeches against the ragged floor. Footsteps follow him out the door, turning into crunches through the snow. "Draco!"</p><p>Not Malfoy.</p><p>Nothing short of stubborn, Granger storms after him through the village while calling out his name, no doubt drawing a crowd.</p><p>And then he trips.</p><p>Trips into a snow bank, and it's freezing against his face.</p><p>"Sorry, sorry," she murmurs, and rips him up with a surprising amount of strength. "Stop running away from me."</p><p>He blinks, snow still caught in his lashes. Her cheeks are pink, and again, she's not worn a suitable coat. The sensible thing is to walk away, but they've been here before, so he yanks his cloak off. Draco wraps it around her, and fastens the button below her chin, ignoring the way she presses closer to him, icy fingers finding his. "Let me go on, Granger. You can spare me the gentle let down. It was an accident, just drunken words that we're better off forgetting."</p><p>As if either of them can manage that. He knows that the look on her face—the mix of surprise and something he couldn't place, so he's named it as horror—will never properly leave him. He has no idea what he'd looked like, blurting that out in the open.</p><p>"Is that what you think is happening here?" Granger huffs. "If I really wanted to reject you, I assure you I would have waited until we weren't in public anymore."</p><p>"We're not in public anymore."</p><p>She glares at him. "That's your fault. We could have stayed where it was warm, but you ran away." Granger swallows, the sound small between them. She squeezes her eyes shut for several long seconds before she opens them to look at him again. "Tell me it was an accident then. Tell me that's the truth and I'll let you go. But you haven't lied to me yet, so don't start now."</p><p>It's a dare. She's so obnoxiously Gryffindor that he almost doesn't know why he's fallen quite so hard, so quickly until she looks at him again. Draco peers over her head, shoulders tensing, and considers lying to her then even if she'll know. "It was an accident that I said it."</p><p>Her brows knit together. Suddenly, her hands are curled in his shirt while she pulls him forward. Granger stretches up to match his height on her tip-toes—which she can't—and rolls her eyes. The cheek. "Please say it again, Draco."</p><p>One of his hands curve around her elbow, holding her up, while the other lands at her waist. It's intimate, the way he pulls her in, and the way she lets him. Pretty brown eyes flick from his eyes to his mouth, and it dawns on him again that he's not the brightest one in the room when it comes to her. He should have had to take a breath before saying it. It shouldn't be so easy to say, but it is—because it's the truth, and there is nothing he could ever refuse to do when she looking at him like this.</p><p>"I love you." He says easily, more than breathless, and watches her smile stretch into a grin that's the brightest thing he's ever seen. "I've nearly said it countless times, but I blurted it because—"</p><p>There's snow sliding down the ends of his hair, freezing again, and it drops on his nose when Granger reaches up to dig her fingers into his hair. She tugs him down, all sharp angles as she does, and he wants to joke that she's just so much shorter than him, but then her mouth is on his, and he forgets everything else.</p><p>Well, not quite everything else.</p><p>There's the murmured, "I love you," that is all her, pressing against his mouth while her nails scrape his scalp. There's the feel of her weight solidly against is when he drops down and frames her face with both of his hands in order to properly kiss her until her eyes flutter shut and there's a soft keening sound that comes from her.</p><p>From the village behind them, voices cry out that it's a new year, and Granger walks them backward until their hidden behind a tree and she drapes his cloak over both of them. Her lips are swollen, and a pretty red when she grins and leads him back to her.</p>
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